Don’t desperately try to memorize

Don’t desperately try to remember things. It will just worsen the situation. Rather enjoy your reading. Read slowly, yet steadily. Don’t stress on the fact that you have to remember, just tell yourself that you should understand each point thoroughly. A stressed mind is more susceptible to forgetting.

Repeat

Don’t expect your brain to work like a genius that you read once and retain things. Repeat your reading, if not each sentence, but the main content. In first reading you may not always get the right meaning, you may also skip few important parts. So repeating will help you to get the right meaning and retain as well.

Underline important lines

Don’t forget to underline the important points. While you read, underline the points which are vital, require attention and need to be remembered. Underlining important points will not only help you to remember, but also to get back to the important points at any point of time effortlessly.

Make small points

While you read, it’s better to jot down points too. Writing always helps in memorizing things better. At the end of each chapter or paragraph you may jot down the main points in bullets. It will help you to remember content of the paragraphs or chapter as a whole. While revising your lesson, you can simply take a glance of then points jotted down. Such points will not only help you to memorize better but also to browse through the chapter at a glance.

In front of your eyes

If you actually want to remember some vital points for the purpose of examination and it’s little unmanageable for you, write the important points on a white board or stick on pads and keep them in front of your eyes. Place it above your study table or just in front of your bed, so that every time you pass you take a look of the points. This way even unknowingly you will remember the points.

Now, isn’t memorizing task so easy?

Focus on specific words or sentences

One effective way of speedy reading is not reading the whole of a paragraph, but in bits in pieces. Pick up the important words, phrases and sentences. You can skip conjunctions and elaborations. They don’t carry much significance. Rest will automatically bring the essence.

Know your capability

Figure out your capability and grasping power of words, how fast can you read and understand in a minute. It will help you to know your average standard which you can improvise. Timing yourself will help you to improve every time and motivate you to beat the old score. Check how long it takes for you to finish one page of book. Jot down the speed in a paper. Don’t forget you shouldn’t read it blindly, you need to understand the meaning too.

Take speed reader tests

To gain mastery participate in computer based online or offline speed reader tests. Don’t lie to yourself about the output. Cheating won’t improve your performance. Also measure your comprehension level, to re-assure that you are not merely competing with fast reading but also comprehending the message and retaining the same. It will give you a realistic idea and steady improvement. You can search for such tests on search engines.

Let fingers guide you

Let your fingers scan the text, it will increase your reading speed.

Remove distraction

Make sure you remove distractions like television noise, music, pet’s disturbance, too much of talking and noise in your surroundings. Such distractions won’t give you the picture of your actual speed. Make sure you are at peace and not pre-occupied by tension and thoughts which can hinder your learning.

Speed reading learning is definitely not a child’s play. But consistent efforts do show results.

Your copy or content has to perform in this chaotic world. Wouldn’t it be too much to ask your content to do without providing it the weapon necessary to cut through the clutter? Those weapons are scannability, keywords, and short paragraphs. You need to keep following things in mind when writing for the web:

1. Keep the paragraph short. You are not creating a literary piece, so there is no need to make the paragraphs long. 3 to 4 sentences long paragraphs are enough.
2. Divide your articles using headings and subheadings.
3. Use important items as bullet points.
4. Use keywords in H1, H2, H3, and other heading tags.
5. Use primary keyword as early in the title as you can.
6. Use important keywords in the first 50 words, or at least in first 100 words.
7. Use headings and subheadings to communicate key ideas.
8. Use standard font in the blog or article you post on your website, so that most of the people can read the items.
9. You can also insert images and tables in an article or blog post to make the article scannable.
10. Keep the sentences shorter.
11. Do not confuse your readers by addressing too many issues in a small article. Keep it simple.

Your article or blog post should be constructed in such a way that your audience gets the central idea in the first 30 seconds. This is the amount of time one has for any online item. The visitors may stay longer if you succeed in retaining the audiences’ attention within this time limit.

Prepare a structure for the article

Before you begin writing, you should create a structure of the article. When you undertake this exercise what you are basically doing is creating a skeleton which you will later fill with flesh, blood, and muscles. The structure of an article provides it a basic framework that will later be developed in a full grown article.

Divided the contents in subheadings

Once you know how your final article will look like, you need to divide your articles into sections and sub-sections using headings and subheadings for better readability. To break an article into sections and subsections apply the rule of thumb given below. The rule of thumb is: always put the important ideas into headings of an article, so that people know what individual paragraphs will talk about, and what the article, as a whole, is about.

Write down main points

Now it is time to add some flesh to the structure you have created so far. Under each headings and subheadings, write 2 or 3 bullet points that summarize the central idea of each paragraph, and which add up to make the complete paragraph.

That is it. You are done. Now only the filling up step is left, which could be done anytime, even after one or more breaks.

As said, the final step in the process is to write content beneath headings and subheadings using the main points (bullet points) that you have listed. By following this guide, you will be able to write good quality articles even when you take frequent breaks.

How much should one write?

This is an important question to ask. And the answer to this lies in the understanding of your consumer mental makeup because customer in every category has different expectation from the stuff they find during the research. You need to find for yourself how much your customers are going to read.

Provide them less

Do not give your customer everything she wants. Create a craving for more information by providing only what she needs at the moment is one way to keep your prospects coming back for more. Do not just go over and spill all you know on the face of the audience, your audience may not be ready for that. He may never wanted to get all those information in one go.

Do not outstay your welcome

As there is an entry door, there is an exit door as well, and a smart person knows that, and he uses both doors at appropriate time. He understands that no matter how smart, cool, entertaining, or “fun to be with” guest is, people get bored if he does not leave at the appropriate time.

You should learn to do the same with your words. You need to teach them how to leave and at what point. Your words and the wisdom you are sharing with your audience should not outstay the welcome.

Take, talk, and talk, and people will die of boredom

This happens in a party, it happens at home, and it happens in copywriting as well. People cannot stand a constant chatter — not unless you are the most hilarious or knowledgeable guy in the whole universe who knows one thing and everything — therefore, you need to learn to keep your paragraph shorter, and paragraph way shorter, which should culminate in making the whole piece an inch shorter than customer wants.

Always remember, the only way to keep your customers engaged is to keep them craving for more. This could only happen if you know how much to speak and when to speak.

An ideal cover letter has 4 parts –

Salutation

Letter should address the person you wish to communicate with. This person may hire you. Spell the full name correctly.

Opening

Opening paragraph of the letter is very important, as it’s the first step to appeal to the reader. If you are applying in response to an advertisement, mention that.

Body

This is the most descriptive part of the letter. It should reflect your educational qualification as per your resume, your job experience. You have to sell yourself in most attractive package in this part.

Closing

End has to be interesting, humble and effective. At the end, request for an interview/appointment. Leave a thank note. Use standard complimentary notes like – ‘Sincerely yours’ or ‘Your faithfully’. Leave some space for your signature and below that type your full name.

How to craft the letter?

• Customize the cover letter, as per the employer. Do research concerning the employer before writing the letter. Specifically relate your skills and aptitude with the job you are applying for.
• Mention the source, from where you came to know about the given position. Don’t forget to mention title of the position you are applying for.
• Mention reasons of your interest in the organization. To write in detail, do your homework about the company, its success stories, recent projects, and upcoming projects.
• Only display relevant skills and experience. Don’t include unrelated ones.
• Emphasize on your matching educational qualification, abilities, strengths, and achievements.

Remember certain important points while writing

• Be brief and hit on the point
• Don’t make mistake
• Use word processor and spell check
• Avoid clumsy fonts and colors

Don’t let the chances of casting a good impression go waste with a poor cover letter. Follow the guidelines and craft a brief effective cover letter. Attach it with your CV and send across. Cross your fingers and wait for the interview call. Good luck!

Writing a press release is a bit tricky – and I am not talking about technical stuffs when I wrote that – but it will not remain so, should you read this article through the end.

4 Press release tip

Use Newsworthy angle

Not every write-up can pass for a press release, and your advertising, promotional, and self-glorifying materials will also not pass for a press release.

The content of your press release should be newsworthy for it getting accepted by the online newswire (press release distribution services). If you do not have a newsworthy announcement to make then you can talk of any product offer that you are giving, or any services that you are offering. Write any non-promotional material you want, but write it from the news angle. Just provide who, what, when, where and how of the story. Do not go overboard with self promotion.

A good start is important

The very first sentence of your press release should be powerful. Use targeted headline for the press release, and succinctly provide all the required information in the first paragraph of the press release. You need to give all the details of the news (provide who, what, when, where and how) in the first paragraph only.

Keep it short

The length of your press release should not be around 500 words. Do not make it longer. No one likes to read 3-page long release. Use short sentences, and active voice. Write only those things that adds value to the reader. As said, 500-word is the number you should try to be around.

Write for the media

Many press releases fail to attract attention from media people, newswire, and journalists, etc., because the press release is not written with them in mind. It is written with readers in mind. Writing a press release for end users is a mistake, as they are not the immediate target audience of a press release. Write it for media.

You should also include your contact information at the end, to assist those who want more information about the release.

Although a book review contains the personal experience of a reviewer, writing a book review is slightly technical. It has certain aspects to it which should not be overlooked, to make a review add value to the reader. In this post, I will talk about those technical things.

Anatomy of a book review

Step 1: Provide essential information

In the very first paragraph provide essential information about the book; like, name of the book, author, subject matter, publication, type of book, etc. You can skip this if you are writing a review for the online media, as the information will be available on the backside of the book’s jacket that you will put in the there.

Step 2: Write overview

In this paragraph, write about the book and the author’s intention behind writing it. You can get this information by reading the preface of the book, or the first chapter of the book. You should also write about the point of view from which this book has been written. You should also mention the genre, intended audience, and what style has been adopted.

Step 3: your view on the book

Now, write if the reader should buy the book or not. If it is worth reading or not. Write in brief about what you think about this book. Think this step like creating an elevator pitch.

Step 4: Elaborate

In this step, you need to elaborate on the topics covered in the book. You can also cite some paragraph from the book that may tell about the subject matter. If it is non-fiction, describe about the things talked in the book.

In short, you need to give gist of the book in this step to give readers an idea about the content.

Step 5: Give your judgment

The next step is to write what you think about the arguments, theories, and examples cited by the author. Do you think they are relevant? Has the author used them judiciously? How successful has the author been in exploring the subject? Do you think it would have been written in a better manner? Quantify your claim and make your suggestion here.

Step 6: Write about author

Now it is time to talk about author, his credential, and about books that the author has written in the past. Give a brief description of author’s background.

Step 7: Summarize

In this step, you will like to summarize all you have said above. You should write about book content, author’s idea about the topic he has discussed main points of the books followed by your remark and conclusion.

These are the essential steps in writing a book review. Along with these you can also include things related to physical structure of the book (binding, formatting, etc.) as well as about the index.

Proofreading is a 3-step process that begins with skimming through the article followed by hounding the article for mistakes, and finishes again by scanning through the article.

Step 1: Skim through

This is the very first step. In this step the goal is to search for the obvious spelling and punctuation mistakes. You should also fix the grammatical errors that are obvious. Do not spend too much time here. This step is done merely to remove the obvious mistakes. In many cases, this is all you will need to do.

Step 2: Hound for the error

The next step is to read every bit word, every sentence, and every paragraph. Search for mistakes that you missed in the first step. You may have to fix some sentences as well, or have to rearrange some. Find the errors and fix them. Make a note of the errors, if you are fixing other’s work. The writer may want to get his original ones back.

Step 3: Skim again

This is the third step in the process of proofreading. In this step, your goal is to check the cohesiveness of the article, which might have changed because of the editing you have done to the article. Also search for the errors that you might have missed in the step one and two.

Once you are through with these steps, you will get an article that will be cohesive and free of errors. You can also consider reading your article backward — from finish to beginning. It will expose those errors that you overlook, as a habit — particularly in your articles.

Attract attention, and focus on the bright side

There may be quite a few things in the résumé that were not so much impressive, so try to bury it deeper during your interview by focusing your interviewer’s attention on your strength. Do not just dodge the questions asked about your weak points. Tackle the question wisely and enroute take a turn and move towards your strength. Do it covertly.

Promote your work ethics

Tell your interviewer that because of your age, you do not feel like hopping from one job to another, and will settle if you get a satisfactory job like the one you are giving interview for. Well say this but not in so many words. It should look as if it is coming naturally from you. Do not fake it. Loyalty is a big asset and that too a rare one.

Tell your interviewer your monetary worth

You have accumulated a lot of knowledge and expertise (perhaps interdepartmental ones as well) in your long career before being unemployed. Tell the worth of those skills in dollar terms. The interviewer needs to know your real worth.

With this our discussion on this topic comes to an end. And as a parting though, I must say that this phase (unemployment) is temporary, and there is always a job for a person who deserves it, and works to get it.

You may want to bookmark this post, as I have provided links to all the posts that I have written in this series below this paragraph. I would like to know what you think about this series, so use the comment box and start sending your input.

Index

1. A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – I
2. A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – II
3. A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – III
4. A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – IV
5. A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – V
6. A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – VI
7. A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – VII
8. A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – VIII
9. A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – IX
10. A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – X
11. A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – XI
12. A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – XII
13. A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – XIII
14. A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – XIV
15. A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – XV
16. A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – XVI
17. A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – XVII
18. A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – XVIII

But, there is a way out. You do not need to keep on staring on your computer screen, incessantly, for every waking hours; I understand that it cannot be avoided at times, but you can try. In the following paragraph you will see how you can add human interaction in the equation.

Talk to your client on phone

Occasionally, calling up your client is the first thing you need to do in order to break the loneliness. Your client may not entertain frequent calls, but occasional calls will get due respect. He will be happy to answer your questions on phone. Discussing issues on phone will help you understand client’s need more precisely, but never overdo it; no one goes to work just to be on call with service providers. Call only if you must, or at max twice a week, and for rest of the time, stick to emails.

Build an online network

You must have heard this umpteenth number of time, and you must have got frustrated listening to this networking s@#t, but let me emphasize it one more time because it is very, very important. Forming a network of freelance writers will not only help you secure more gigs, but it will also help you break the monotony of freelance writing life. You can use this network to talk and share ideas and discuss issues. This can be akin to chat near virtual water cooler.

Go to café to write

For long, coffee house has been used by writers to craft their literary work. Why do not you try this alternative? You will be midst people doing different things. Who knows, you may get an idea for your novel! Nevertheless, it will help break the loneliness.

What else do you think can be done to break the monotony of freelance writing? Let’s see what all comes on the table.

Anatomy of a cover letter

Step 1: length of a cover letter

A cover letter should not be more than one page long, and when I say “page” I mean “A4 size page”. Subdivide your cover letter into 3 paragraphs, and try to keep the cover letter within 350-400 words. The goal of your cover letter is to generate interest in the reader not to chock him to death with your uncontrolled biographical rattling.

Step 2: Name and address

Put name and address of recipient at the top on the left-hand side of the cover letter, and fold the cover letter putting names and address at the top.

Step 3: Use proper salutation

Do not begin your cover letter with “To Whom It May Concern” as it will not concern anyone. Find the name of the person you are sending your résumé, and use his second name (family name) as salutation as in Dear Mr. Jones, or Dear Ms. Lloyd. If you fail to get name of the person who will read your cover letter than you can simply write Dear Sir/Madam.

Step 4: 1st paragraph

Being this paragraph with writing why you want to work with the company followed by giving a brief introduction about yourself and talk about the academic qualification you have in brief (of course, I am assuming here that you fresher looking for your first job). Do not tell the reader everything you know. Say only as much as required to garner interest.

Step 5: 2nd paragraph

The second paragraph of your cover letter should consist of the things you learned while pursuing your highest degree, the degree on the basis of which you are applying for the job. Mention 5 to 7 key concepts that are relevant to the industry. Talk about cutting edge things that you learned.

Step 6: 3rd paragraph

Write how you can add value to the organization if you are hired. Just use 2-3 sentences to explain this.

Conclusion

You should sound confident while writing a cover letter, but avoid sound overconfident. You should sound sincere in seeking employment but never sound begging. It’s not good for health and morale. Be professional and sound like one. No one cares how you got that stain on your shoes. They just do not like stains.

To keep things simple for you, I am providing here a news writing framework that will help you craft a piece of interesting to read news. This framework will help you make the news interesting to read. Fill the details in the following boxes and then just interweave them to give it the shape of a piece of news.

A press release is a marketing device used by the public relation department of the organization to inform media and public about the newsworthy development in the organization. It could also be targeted towards informing and building confidence in investors and other stakeholders.

There is a certain process of writing a press release, which I am discussing in the paragraphs below. Before you write a press release, you need to keep in mind that journalists (the primary target audience of your press release) are busy people, so you should not bog them down with your epic press release. Your press release should not be more than one page consisting of 4 to 5 short paragraphs.

Mechanics of press release

Paragraph 1

The first paragraph of the press release should contain the actual news. What has happened, who made it happen, when it happened, where it happened, and why it matters to the readers.

Paragraph 2

Build up on the above paragraph and describe succinctly about the news. This should also contain the information related to the release to put the event or the news in the right perspective.

Paragraph 3

This paragraph would contain further details about the news, and a direct quote from CEO, president or director of the company. You can also have a quote from the vice president or head of the department that is being covered in the press release. For example, you can also put a quote from marketing VP or marketing head, if the release talks about market condition.

Paragraph 4

A brief history of the organization, and its financial and other vital statistics could be provided in this paragraph.

Paragraph 5

Another direct quote from either marketing director, VP, HR head, IT head, etc., should be given to give an overall perspective on the news. You can also use CEO’s statement here. The only thing that you need to keep in mind is that the person who was quoted in the third paragraph should not be quoted here. Readers and journalists need two different perspectives from two different quarters.

Closing thought

Do not forget to provide contact information of the concerned person at the bottom of the press release. Journalists may need to talk to someone to get further clarification on the release.

Rule 1: Length of a press release

A press release should not be longer than one A4 (8.5”X11”) size paper. Divide your press release into 4 to 5 small paragraphs.

Rule 2: Rules related to Quotations

Do not use more than two quotations in the press release. And do not start a press release with a quotation. Quotations should come not earlier than the third paragraph. Only use quotations that come from the person behind the news or from CEO of the company.

Rule 3: Company information

You must include “About the company” at the bottom of the press release.

Rule 4: Contact person

The contact details written at the bottom of the press release should be working. Do not put any phone number of e-mail id for the heck of it. Provide contact details of a person who is in charge of the media releases. This is important because you never know which journalist needs more info and hence end up contacting.

Rule 5: Proper place and date

Start a press release with giving a proper place and complete date.

Rule 6: Include ### sign

### marks the end of the press release, so you should not forget to add this.

I have provided a proper format of a press release in the previous article titled, structure of a press release. Do read it.

A press release follows an inverted pyramid format (see fig.). The most important part of the news goes in the first paragraph followed by the information that is less important than the one preceding it. Include quotation and further explanation in the third paragraph, followed by background of the news. And the last paragraph of a press release contains history and other information about the company.

Press release format

The image below contains a standard format used to write a press release. Every element mentioned in it is important, and always write a press release on a company’s letter head.

Find an audience and kill them

Well, this is known to all the fiction writers, especially poets. Nobody likes to read or listen to anyone else’s piece, until and unless he is Dan Brown or Paulo Coelho. It will take some persuading before you can read your work to anyone, even to your cat, but you must do it, in order to figure out the issues with your writing. For now, you just need listeners, not their feedbacks.

Discount 10 percent words

This is something worth doing. I know you will feel the pang as everyone of us does, but always remember your goal is not to create a piece full of sentences, but to create a beautiful work of art with only required number of sentences. Do not fall in love with sentences; fall in love with your overall piece, and attempt to make the whole piece look good.

Hear what they say

A good writer takes cues from the real life, and listening to others will give you many. Overhear others, if you need to, because you can get the best insight only by becoming invisible observer.

Observe how they talk

Not only the contents of their talks are important, but the style used to convey the message is equally important. This will tell you how to say it.

Read, read and study

To make your writing shine like the writing of masters, you will need to study the works of great writers. Do not limit yourself to reading great writers, read bad ones as well. To be able to differentiate chaff from wheat, you need to know what is what.

Importance of a press release

Press release helps our website in three ways:

• It helps us inform the stake holders about the recent development in our website by setting the news out.
• It helps us get back links to our website.
• And the third benefit of a press release is the massive one. A press release helps us get more traffic.

A well written press release will get picked by many news publishing sites operating in your niche, which not only will give you a backlink each to your website, but it will send a constant flow of traffic as well.

SEO benefit of a press release

Everything that gets posted on the Internet can be optimized for better ranking in major search engines. Be it articles, stories, poems, videos, podcasts, images, or even a press release. Unlike the press releases written for print medium, the press release written for web is technically optimized to help the company in question get some mileage in terms of the search engine juices.

How to optimize a press release

As usual start with doing a keyword research for your niche and use it as early as you can in the first paragraph of the press release. Use the main keyword in the title of the press release as well. You should not use more than three links in the body of the press release. I will suggest using 2 links, each at a distance of at least 100 words from each other.

Everything written above is important; rather very important, but what is more important than all these things, when writing for web, is SEO, or say keywords to be more precise. (If you need to know about what key word is, and how to find relevant keywords or how to sue them then you should read SEO Simplified: Basics of Keyword.)

More often than not, you will stumble across a client who will ask you to write a keyword rich article, or to write an article using the given keyword, but the keyword density should not exceed 5 percent of the word count. You may also be asked to write a keyword-rich title (headline), headings, sub-headings, and anchor texts, or the client can demand you to write different meta tags as well along with the article. The demand of a client doesn’t end here; some even asks to use keywords twice in the first paragraph, once towards the end of the article while maintaining a keyword density of 4 percent.

The point is, if you are writing for web, you cannot avoid SEO (Search Engine Optimization). You have to know what SEO is, and how to find and use keywords in your articles. This is, when writing for web, as important as a working knowledge of grammar. Some writing experts [so-called] may try to denounce the importance of SEO in writing for the web, by classifying this kind of writing under SEO writing heading, which according to them is just one form of writing for the web. Well, nothing can be as far from the truth as it is. Let me tell you, every kind of writing for the web is SEO writing. No matter what you write, if you want people to read it, you need to optimize it with relevant keywords.

I will suggest you to follow the succeeding link and familiarize yourself with SEO, if you already don’t know about it, by reading SEO Simplified: an Overview. This series is meant for beginners only, and an absolute one for that.

What is your view about the importance of keywords in online copywriting?

Sometimes, instinct gives a good indication about what topic will get warm welcome from the readers, and what will be ignored as if it never existed, but instinct cannot be a reliable guide, if you have to write daily or regularly for any magazine, newspaper, online magazine or blog. You need a more reliable system then the instinct has to offer.

Before working on developing any idea into an article or a blog post, you should check how it does on the following parameter:

Do you have something new to offer?

The chances are quite high that the topic you are going to write about has already been covered by the magazine or blog you are writing for. Even if they have not covered it, their competitors must have done that. Do you have anything new to say about the weight-loss program you are going to write about? Any new development or a new angle? Even a fresh point of view can offer the required newness.

Does your writing flow?

If you want people to read what you write, your articles and blog posts need to flow. No one likes bumpy rides. Your words and sentences should help them glide through the paragraph after paragraphs. Do not use jargons, and keep the structure as simple as the writing idea permits. Always remember, your readers have limited time, and in this time, he can either read your article or do other things like, watching television, listening music, or write on Facebook walls.

How will it connect with the reader?

This is the most crucial point. You have a groundbreaking idea, and your writing style makes you hell of a charmer, but still your visitors are not falling over each other to read your piece, why? May be because you have targeted a wrong market, and the readers here are too smart or too stupid for your kind of articles. People will read only if you step up or step down (depending upon where you are) to their level. Can the reader connect with your article?

What’s the use?

Imagine this: you have come home after a long tiring day at office, and you turned on your laptop to read something, or picked a magazine to browse through. Your eyes happen to find an article that has a nice juicy headline, interesting sub-headlines, and even the first few lines are written wonderfully. You couldn’t resist but read it till the end, but here comes the bomb. The article has nothing to offer but a nice flowing style of writing. It doesn’t add even a single word, sentence or idea to your repertoire of the existing knowledge. You feel wastes. Your reader will feel the same, so make sure you are writing because you have something valuable to offer.

Will it entertain?

The entertainment value of any article should not be underrated. People do not read your article just because they feel you are going to redeem them. They do not think that way, nor are they here to get enlightened, though they will not mind it, if the redemption and enlightenment is offered sugar-coated in entertainment. You do not need to preach to send the serious message across. Do not think readers are so blunt.